Here’s how one printing company convinced me to place a large contract with them

I’ve shared a lot of sales messages from printing companies recently. They have all had one thing in common: they have encouraged me to buy print on price. I’ve received a lot of feedback from these posts. They seem to have touched a nerve with the print sales community.

However, I’ve also been issued a challenge by a number of people.

Give an example of a good sales e-mail

If you want to shake hands on a print deal you need a unusual, engaging sales message. Find out a great example in this article

To be honest, this has proved challenging! I haven’t received that many good sales e-mails. However, there is one sales message that has stuck in my mind.

A few years ago I was buying print for a magazine publishing company. I had a lot print sales people approaching me. However, this company approached me a little differently. Their opening line has always stuck in my mind:

“Hello Matthew, we are a printing company but we don’t want to print your magazines”

That was a refreshing start. It had me wondering what they did want. They had earned a few more minutes on the phone.

The sales person went on to tell me that they specialized in working with businesses that had subscription businesses. They had a some solutions that helped reduce subscription marketing costs. They also had a track record in improving the response rates from subscription marketing.

I was intrigued. The company won a meeting with me. From that meeting we started talking seriously. In a little while this company won a sizeable chunk of work from me.

Here’s why this sales message worked for me

Firstly, the message was focused on a specific type of business. I knew that the company worked with businesses like mine. They weren’t one of those print companies that tries to be all things to all people. I felt that they understood my business (or at least the part that they wanted to work with).

Secondly, they understood the challenges in a subscription business. There is always a focus on marketing costs. A subscription business’s lifeblood is the winning of new subscribers. This company claimed that they could help me with both these challenges.

Most importantly, when it came to the meeting, the company was able to prove how it could genuinely help. They had an impressive track record. They also had case studies to back up their claims.

Finally, this company stood apart from the competition. They specialized in solving specific problems. They also had built some proprietary solutions around these sorts of issues.

You may have noticed a couple of omissions in the sales message

Firstly, the sales message said nothing about print. The company announced that they were a printer. But after this there was no mention about presses or products or colour control.

Next, the company hardly talked about themselves. They didn’t talk about their company history. There was no mention of their location. They weren’t making big claims about service levels or capabilities.

As a buyer this was refreshing. The company made sure they were in my world, not theirs. These days the majority of buyers neither know nor care much about print. This company realized this.

Printing companies that use messaging like this will gain more sales

These are the types of message that engage buyers. They lead to the creation of good supplier-client relationships. They help printing companies achieve their sales goals.

Printing companies that ignore this type of message and continue selling print in traditional ways will struggle. They will find it harder to achieve their goals. They are much less likely to create true relationships with buyers. Instead they will be treated as commodity suppliers.

What should you do if you want to create a message like this?

Here are four steps to set you on the path of creating a new type of sales message:

Pick one of your best customers. This should be the sort of customer that you want more of. They will become your target market.

Spend some time talking to this customer. Get to know them really well. Then it will be much easier to craft a message that is in their world.

I hope I’ve risen to the challenge of showing you a good sales message.

I’d like to share some more great sales messages

If you think you have a great sales message, please share it with me. But, be warned, I’ll only write about the best ones!
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